I would use a well-known protocol such as SOAP, using the existing CPAN Perl modules that are built to do that. All of the technical issues have been taken care of, and who really cares exactly how much data-size it takes.

I would use a well-known protocol such as SOAP, using the existing CPAN Perl modules that are built to do that. All of the technical issues have been taken care of, and who really cares exactly how much data-size it takes.

Data size and protocol overheads are very important things to monitor in my line of work. Our customers have massive amounts of equipment communicating over a county-, territory- or even state-wide 100Mbps* private network. The occasional software and configuration push cannot impede the normal traffic or people might die.